Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - The NFL is firing coaches like crazy, is the pressure up on KOC/Vikings?

Episode Date: January 20, 2026

From the road, Matthew Coller takes time to sift through the latest NFL news, including the latest big name coaching hiring and firings before answering a handful of your Vikings questions. The Purple Insider podcast is brought to you by FanDuel. Also, check out our sponsor HIMS at https://hims.com/purpleinsider Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hey, everybody, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. Matthew Collar here. One more day on the road and then I'll be back to my home studios. But football never, ever stopped. So neither does the Purple Insider podcast. Of course, the show, as always, presented by our friends at FanDuel. Now, I want to get into a couple of news items here to start. And then I put it out there for Viking fan questions on Twitter and got about 60 responses.

So I'm going to work my way through. some of your questions there. And then we'll get into just what's going on and what's next for the Vikings, but a lot of really, really good questions from Vikings fans. So why don't we dive right in? We'll start with the biggest news item of the day, which is that the Buffalo Bills decided to fire Sean McDermott, which I got to say is pretty bizarre for him to be the fall guy here in this instance.

I mean, one thing is that if you just think, about that game against the Denver Broncos. They win a playoff game against a 13-win team. Then they go to Denver. They appear to have won the football game. If Brandon Cooks can hold on to the ball for one Mississippi longer and establish himself on the ground. And since he didn't, then Sean McDermott gets fired. And when I look at the Buffalo Bill's roster and make no mistake, Josh Allen made some huge miscues in that football game and deserved a lot of the blame for why They did not get over the hump, but the Buffalo Bill's roster has gone through over the last couple of years, I think a degrading of what they were in Josh Allen's first few seasons,

which is natural when you're talking about the rookie quarterback contract advantage going away, having to pay Josh Allen. And then when you're always drafting somewhere between 25th and 32nd, it's really, really hard to get elite talent. And yet still at the most key position wide receiver to support Josh Allen. There was very little effort to improve that spot. They had James Cook as a great running back and they leaned on that all season. But at times during the game against Denver where they needed someone to make a play, it was not there at the receiver spot.

And they were negligent, I think in trying to fill that. Also their defense, which I think held tough in a lot of ways. But I mean, they were still asking Trey White to go out there and make a bunch of plays, a guy who was good years ago and has struggled. They had brought back, you know, earlier this year, guys like Jordan Poyer and, you know, some of the OGs of that original Bill's run, but they didn't have the past pressure that they were able to create before.

They were able to, I think, mix and match coverages with Sean McDermott doing a good job coaching to get enough out of their defense to win a game like against Jacksonville. And they basically said, all right, well, if you can run against this, go ahead. We're going to try to, you know, really focus on coverage and try to patch up the holes that we have there with different zones. And I know that Cody Alexander from match quarters did a breakdown of this of how McDermott was showing one thing, changing to another, stuff like that. And he's always been an excellent defensive mind. But even when you go through that roster on defense, I mean, do you see a bunch of megastars? Does, does it look like Seattle to you?

Does it look like Denver to you with defensive MVP from last year on that team and one of the best past rushers and Nick Benito? It really doesn't. It really looks like kind of a bunch of guys. And somehow the general manager ends up not only firing the head coach who turned around an entire franchise that had been pathetic for many, many, many years. And remember, he got into the playoffs before Josh Allen and then was at the helm, well, the bills developed, Josh Allen and continue to believe in him and buy into him for those first couple years that were a little bit rocky and then got them through the Damar Hamlin incident and has had them on the doorstep many times. And it really has seemed like it's been more bad luck than anything coaching wise. Now the 13 seconds thing against Kansas City.

Yep, I think McDermott owns that one in the playoffs. But I think it speaks to how wild things have gotten with owners in the end. NFL and I saw one tweet of someone saying this is the craziest bunch of 32 owners that have ever existed in the NFL, which might be true. And I think what it says is the general manager of the bills, Brandon Bean, he has got the ear of the owner a lot more than the head coach. And someone needed to be the fall guy for them not getting there with Josh Allen. And it wasn't going to be him. But I guess now the pressure is on for him to prove that it was Sean McDermott's fault. And one thing I don't enjoy hearing very much is the comparison with Tony Dungey to John Gruden.

See, well, they needed to get over the hump by going to John Gruden. And that may be true. Or maybe there was a Bert Emanuel for those historians out there, catch that was called Not a Catch that cost Tony Dungey. And also maybe, I don't know, Sean King wasn't as good as Brad Johnson, but there could be that that happened 20 something years ago. and there is not another example since. So that makes me question how apt that comparison really is.

But whoever takes the job is now going to take over the best quarterback in the National Football League in Josh Allen. And, you know, I don't love when a guy is called not clutch over and over in the playoffs. But Alan has not come through in some big moments where they needed him to. And now it's on the next coach to be able to do that. But if you give him the same roster that McDermott had this year, I don't know that you're going to be a Super Bowl team next season. So that was a very strange move, although I'll say this, that if someone doesn't rush to hire

Sean McDermott as their head coach, well, you know, I've got a good place where he could potentially rehab as a defensive coordinator. Minnesota, McDermott's reputation as a defensive mind has been top notch. And while he does not have the same exact philosophy as Brian Flores, you know, he had to work with a lot of different pieces over the years and always had very competitive defenses for the Buffalo bills. And if you go player for player with the star power of the Vikings defense versus the bills, it's quite a bit different. So if the Minnesota Vikings lose Brian Flores, then there will be some other guys here. Rahim Morris is one of them and Sean McDermott. And I know a lot of people

are wondering, well, why aren't they interviewing candidates? And I think they would like to get some sort of indication first about Flores because he is their first choice to come back. But this also might be the week where they have to start doing that. And they have to start talking to other potential defensive coordinators. And I would put Sean McDermott very, very high on that list if he does not become a head coach again. Also want to touch on a few other things. Jeff Halfley is the going from defensive coordinator of the Green Bay Packers to the head coach of the Miami Dolphins. interesting that they go from the geeky offensive mind to the hard nose defensive guy,

which is kind of typical of coach firings, but maybe not something that I expected. I thought maybe they would go with someone a little bit more on the flashy side than Jeff Halfley. And Halfley's done a very good job in Green Bay over the last couple years. His reputation is really good. And the Vikings have gone to battle with that defense a couple of times and struggled at times. he's very good again with the deception, lots of different looks, lots of different pressures, and no surprise, they weren't the same without Micah Parsons, as goes for everyone.

But that hire now leaves a defensive coordinator position open in Green Bay. And allow me to use Internet speak here for a second. The Green Bay Packers have a chance to do the funniest thing, which would be to hire Brian Flores. I don't know based on, you know, some reporting and analysis of how much they spend on their assistant coaches if they can afford Brian Flores, because this seems more like a Josh Harris in Washington or Jerry Jones type of paycheck that you're going to have to cut Brian Flores. But if he were to go to the Green Bay Packers, I mean, just take out the knife and stab it right in the back of the Minnesota Vikings. It is a good job. and you do take over a team with Micah Parsons and a good quarterback and a roster overall that can continue to grow with some young players there.

But it would be shocking if they wanted to put down the cheese, the cash, that Brian Flores would require. But it's possible. I mean, this is what makes this situation so bizarre about Flores being a free agent is that anything is on the table. including the possibility that Flores could go to the Green Bay Packers or, I mean, Flores could go to the Miami Dolphins. That's also possible as well. And he did have, if you missed yesterday, a second interview with the Pittsburgh Steelers and one of the reporters out of Pittsburgh, did say that they feel like he's a very serious candidate.

And I wouldn't be surprised if their ownership, knowing their respect for Mike Tomlin, asked Tomlin for his thoughts on who should be the next head coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers. and if he would endorse Brian Flores, considering that he was the guy that hired Brian Flores to keep him in the National Football League as an assistant and then ultimately open the door for Flores to go to the Minnesota Vikings as their defensive coordinator. Now, the question has come up a number of times

if Flores were to leave for a head coaching job, did the Vikings get comp picks? And I'm going to tell you the truth, I don't know the answer to that because he doesn't work here, but he did work here, but he doesn't work here now. So if he's not under contract, are you actually losing him or did you already lose him? And then you don't get compensated for it. I would think they deserve it, considering that they put him back on the map.

And I thought that that was supposed to be kind of the goal of giving draft picks is, hey, if you can put coaches who normally wouldn't get chances on the radar and give them opportunities, and then they go on to prove themselves and be had coaches that you should get some reward for that. And that's exactly what the Vikings did. But I don't know for sure what the answer to that question is. Also, one more note on the defensive coordinator side is that Durante Jones had another interview with New York. And those are not interviews where people are trying to check a box, which I know does happen. That means they're very serious because it's for a defensive coordinator position, not head coach. So you don't have to, as far as I know,

interview X number of candidates for those coordinator positions. Maybe I could be wrong on that, but Durante Jones getting very serious consideration around the NFL, and there is a chance, but this is sort of like one of those, a window shuts and a door opens situation, I guess. If Flores were to leave, then, you know, you've got Rahim Morris, you've got Sean McDermott. These guys are very similar to Flores in the fact that they were head coaches previously and then can bring that experience potentially to Minnesota to be a defensive coordinator. And the last thing is the Indiana Hoosiers are national champions. What a game that was between Indiana and Miami.

I would say I would draft lots of people off of Miami's defensive line. But if you were wondering, is Fernando Mendoza really worthy of the top overall draft pick? I think the answer is absolutely yes. And it wasn't just how he threw the football. a tough game. I mean, they were under pressure all day long, but it was really the toughness and leadership that he showed throughout that game running into the end zone, taking shots. He literally got punched in the mouth to open the game, a play that should have gotten a player ejected instead. It wasn't even a penalty. That was odd. But Mendoza back shoulder fades,

executing fourth downs, hitting key passes in key moments, accurately executing on time. The only question I have about Fernando Mendoza going to the NFL and transitioning quickly is that in that offense, he's never under center. And how is he going to adapt to that? Because it doesn't look like he's ever been asked to do that, that the pistol. And this was something that I didn't even really consider with somebody like Michael Penix when he was coming out in the draft. And I know that Mendoza's knees are fine and penics is weren't. But, you know, I mean, most offenses do a lot of shotgun in the NFL, of course, but they also are mixing more and more under center around the league and even traditional shotgun quarterbacks like Matthew Stafford will get under center.

And is that going to be a quick transition? Because they were trying pistol stuff in Atlanta with Pennix. And it really did not work. I think all that well. I don't think in the NFL you could just run out a shotgun all the time. So that's a question. But size accuracy, I thought he showed more athleticism than maybe has been discons. at times, throwing on the run or, you know, diving into the end zone, scrambling.

I think size is a factor there when there are certain comparisons that you're going to see with Kirk Cousins. It does have to be considered that he is quite a bit bigger than Kirk Cousins. But, you know, not a perfect prospect, not, you know, a Cam Newton necessarily when you talk about a total freak level athlete, but somebody that maybe the Las Vegas Raiders can build around. I think they should run in the pick for Mendoza and go from there with him. but that was an unbelievable college season and what a ride it was. And I found myself throughout the week not really being all that excited about it. Like all college football is still going.

Who cares? Whatever. I was wrong. I was wrong about that. It was worth the wait for Miami and Indiana. Not the matchup we expected, but I love that it was something different. I love the jersey matchup.

I love that it was new characters, new people that we had never seen before. Great storylines for both teams. and also Tony from Miami is not coming out in the draft for a couple more years, but we'll be keeping an eye on that fella from Miami. That was an incredible performance by him, but I don't think we'll be seeing Carson Beck on Sundays after this season. I mean, he played okay and got them to the national championship,

but you saw some of the shortcomings in this game. So let's get on to your fan questions, and there's going to be a couple episodes of these worth, because I did get so many questions. I mean, I think that that's where we're at in Vikingsland. So many questions is exactly how I would describe the current situation. So I've got him here on my phone. Fellas, do you ever have that feeling when you see an old photograph of yourself

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This is not a question, but seeing the coaches that were fired this year, KOC has one year to win a playoff game or he's gone. Do we really think he's going to let J.J. McCarthy be the guy when he knows this. Seems like there is something big brewing. So I think that your instincts here are pretty good. And I think that one of the biggest advantages of having the willf ownership,

and we've gone over the disadvantage, and it's a question a lot about, you know, the always want to win, never willing to take a step back. And hey, look, you know, there's some teams that are still remaining that had some bad seasons in recent years or teams that were in the divisional round, like the Patriots, like the Bears, that have done these full, complete rebuilds. And last year it was Washington. And everybody thinks that if you have a down year,

you have to be down for like seven years. Well, not if you're a good organization. It's usually just a reset type of year. And even when you think about where the Vikings were at when Les Frazier was fired, what happened right before that, one of their worst years in the last 20 seasons and they got a top 10 draft pick out of it who was here for a decade or something and made many pro bowls and, you know, it got a lot of draft capital.

And, you know, look, the rules are built to rebuild teams and take, you know, year or two to do that. And they've never really wanted to take that step back. That's been a criticism in a way, more of a critique than a criticism, I think, just because it's hard to criticize and say, you're wrong for wanting to fill up your stadium and have wins and be in the playoff race every single year. But anyway, put that aside, I think that they're not the most crazy reactionary owners, except for a couple of times they may have signed off on some overreactions to small

samples. And what I mean is Kirk Cousins winning a playoff game and then signing an extension for him and Mike Zimmer or maybe Sam Darnold losing a playoff game and then deciding or agreeing to allow the leadership to move on from Sam Darnold. So, you know, but I don't know. I think you put that on the football people more than the owners. The point just being that the Wills are not crazy people. They are sane people. They're owners and they're going to react to stuff, but they're not madmen. So I think that what we're seeing around the league is a lot of owners who are more reactionary, probably more connected to fan overreactions than they've ever been. And that also reacts or results in firings.

And then there's succession type stuff where certain people are trying to save their jobs and certain people have the ears of the owner and so forth and other people don't, which may have happened in Buffalo. So every situation is kind of its own. And I think this goes for this too. I mean, when you say definitively, if they don't win a playoff game, it's over. I mean, imagine a scenario where let's say they trade for Mack Jones because he's the only guy they can get their hands on. And JJ wins the battle.

And they go 12 and 5. And McCarthy is a top 15 quarterback. And whoever they hire a defensive coordinator or Brian Flores is really good. They have a top five defense. And then you get into the first round of the playoffs. And this is kind of a scenario that just happened to Buffalo and they fired their coach. But, you know, hang on with me. And really Harbaugh in Baltimore too.

But hang on. And let's just say they have a 12 win season. They go to overtime and they score a touchdown. And then the other team goes down and scores a touchdown and gets the two point conversion and wins. And so then Kevin O'Connell has seasons of 13, 14, and 12 and doesn't have a playoff win. Are you firing him at that point? That would seem really stupid. stupid to me. That would not seem like a great idea. And I get it why you know, you can't really go five

years without a playoff win, but there's different versions of all of these things, right? If they were to go seven and 10 and JJ doesn't play and they stick with Mack Jones or Kyler Murray or whoever they're going to get, Kirk Cousins comes back and they win seven. Yeah, then of course, well, just make a change. Right. So everything kind of comes along with a different tag of, well, what if it happens like this or what if it happens like that, then, you know, you're not. And the thing about O'Connell, too, is that I understand the shortcomings. We cover them every single day, but it does matter that the team went from four and eight to nine and eight. It does matter that he never lost the locker room. It does matter that the leadership has always been on his side. And it does matter that

he's never had a real solidified quarterback to all those offensive stats that people like to bring up, DVOAs and everything else. When did he have a star running back? The answer is never. When did he have a that they drafted or was in his prime? He's at post prime. When did they ever have a quarterback who was in the top 10 when the season started? I probably never.

If you went to quarterback tier rankings, did you ever see, did you see Kirk Cousins there in 2022? Did you see Sam Darnold there in 2024? No, you didn't. And with JJ McCarthy, clearly they botched. that a bunch of ways, you know, until Sunday. But still, you know, you're talking about a team that stuck together through the end. So when you have that, which is you can consistently galvanize the leaders of a team, you can consistently continue to battle no matter the scenario, you got to

think long and hard because this is not a situation where you have a bunch of drama on a team falling apart, which to me gives you opportunities over multiple years. If things go right, you're probably going to be right in the race year after year. That's somebody that is much harder to talk about firing than a coach when Mike Zimmer, when things went wrong, it was like, oh, yes, pull that lever. Like make it end because no one can stand this anymore. This is a lot different. To your point, though, I overall, I want to add all the caveats and things like that.

But to your point, in the NFL, you don't usually get five years without a playoff win, period. And I agree that every single aggressive possible route has to be investigated by the Vikings. And for all of those who want to leave the comments about Kyler Murray, they'll never do it. And he's terrible and X, Y, and Z, right? Well, I mean, I would say that if we're ranking the most aggressive, take a real big swing type of moves. Well, number one is Burrow or Lamar Jackson and Justin Herbert, right after that. Well, who's right after that? Aaron Rogers and Kyler Murray, if those are your two options, which one are you guys taking? You can't tell me you're taking the 40-something-year-old quarterback

who just got pummeled in a playoff game rather than the former number one pick in his prime, who was 12th by PFF last year and might be a lot of fun, right, and can get the ball to his number one wide receiver and can throw the ball downfield and has a lot of shortcomings, but at least has an upside. So I do agree with you that in general, there has to be all those possible routes looked into. And you can't just say, we're going to ride with JJ. It's a five year plan. Here we go. Like, we're going to, you know, try to develop him over a number of years. Like, we're the Packers or something. Probably not. Like, you probably aren't going to get that much leeway with this decision that was made.

And it does matter that Sam Darnold has turned out to be on the team that goes to the NFC championship, regardless of what happens this week. That is a very, very bad look for the decision makers in the Vikings organization, which means you have to save yourself this year more likely than not. I don't think it's a great strategy long term to just hire and fire, higher and fire, higher and fire. But, you know, if we're talking realities of the NFL, yes, you got to be back. in the playoffs, you've got to have a winning season.

And that could mean something that we don't even see coming at the quarterback position and could really end up surprising us. So now you know I'm back to answering questions from Twitter and emails because it was a really long answer. But I think it deserves a really long answer. The context of this is very, very important. And that overall pressure could push them into doing something super hyper aggressive, like once upon a time, I don't know, getting Brett Favre.

Is he around? Probably could still sling it. All right. Next question comes from Brett. Says with halfway being hired by the dolphins, what are the odds that Flores is hired by the Packers? There's obviously something behind the scenes. Is it enough to make him want to stick it to the Vikings?

Well, I think with Brian Flores, in terms of behind the scenes, that's a very difficult one to guess on. because, you know, as you said, behind the scenes, like we talk to people all the time. We have conversations. We talk to people at podiums. We talk to players, all those things. And there's nothing that I could point to that I would have on any sort of solid evidence that I could present in court to be able to say there's something wrong between Brian Flores and the Vikings.

And yet at the same time, Brett, your instincts of while we're here, aren't we? tell us something. There's signal in the situation being what it is. And Kevin O'Connell having consistently said, hey, we want him back. We want him to be here. But I don't think it's wanting to stick it to the Viking situation. I've never got that sense. I mean, he cares about the players.

They care about him. That has been clear. That I am very, very much sure of. Power dynamics and different interpersonal dynamics. Now, those are a lot harder to figure out just by talking to people and, you know, whatever whispers or murmurs, I mean, we can't say anything solid of, oh, yes, this person said this. So there must be a problem. But there's something he didn't love about sticking with the Vikings organization last year, whether it was the money, which it could be the simplest possible answer, whether it was the change of quarterback, which was at very least always a possibility to get to this point where they're. wondering if it's, you know, going to be J.J. McCarthy or somebody else or whether it's just the voice in the room. Like sometimes that matters of, hey, are you getting the last swing at

who stays, who goes, who's getting cut, who's getting kept? Were there, I mean, sometimes I've heard of this before in the NFL that there's battles over guys that you would just never even dream of. You'd be like, what? This team, this GM and this head coach. were at absolute blows over that guy. That guy didn't even matter. He would, but stuff like that happens. So those little dynamics,

I don't know what it might be or it might be that the Wilf said, we're paying X for our head coach. We're paying Y for our OC. Why should we pay head coaching money for you? Again, these are all just suspicions when you mentioned there's something behind the scenes. There's something, but I don't know if we're ever going to know exactly what went through Brian Flores's head. And he said, you know what?

No, I'm not going to sign an extension with a 14 win team with a bunch of players that I really love and really love me for an organization that is as it treats its employees as well as any that I've ever heard of in the NFL. So it is odd. But would he go to the Packers? I think that depends on all those things that I just brought up, which is that is a way of playing that Matt LaFleur clearly bought into because Jeff half. was very similar with some of his background and, you know, the way that he designed

his coverages and things like that. So it's not a crazy thought. But with the Packers leadership, can't say ownership, because that's, you know, all those Wisconsinites with their little things. But would their leadership sign off on paying him what he wanted to get paid and would he view that as a place that he wanted to go? And I mean, it is a legendary organization. I know you don't want to hear that, but it's it is. And it's got a mystique to it and it's got a player to it that is about the best in the world. And they've got a chance to compete for Super Bowls. But I mean, I don't know if that chance is wildly higher than the Vikings.

I think it is higher because they have a franchise quarterback. And look, Jordan loves in the same tier as Sam Darnold. If you build the right team, then, yeah, you've got a chance. So that might factor into it as well. I still think Washington makes the most sense for him, Jaden Daniels. is there, rebuild an entire defense, kind of be a hero. Or if the Pittsburgh Steelers hire him, then this conversation just goes completely away. And we just don't talk about it.

But here's where I agree with you. If he goes to the Green Bay Packers, it's going to feel personal, whether it is or not. And I think for these guys, it's not necessarily like that. But if you go to the biggest rival for the Minnesota Vikings, yeah, it's going to feel like, okay, wow, did they kick your dog? Like what the heck happened between you and the Vikings? And we may never find out. I don't expect it's going to happen because the price tag is very high,

but I wouldn't rule it out. I mean, the drama already of the NFL, probably about five, six, seven things have already happened that I would have told you. No, there's no way the bills fire McDermott. If they win a playoff game and lose an OT on a bunch of pass interferences, right? and that happened today. So let's see. Let's go to Mark here.

Says, what did Quasi mean in the press conference about drafting JJ with, quote, incomplete information? Hearing that was very surprising. So it was not a reference to drafting McCarthy. It was a reference to turning to McCarthy from Sam Darnold. And the incomplete information is, well, McCarthy had never played in a game before. he had only played in one preseason game and had one training camp, which clearly impressed Kevin O'Connell in 2024 camp. We have to remember how sold O'Connell was in 2024 camp.

And I had asked some people about, hey, is that really true what Kevin said? Or was he kind of like prisoner of the moment with McCarthy. And the answer was that they bought in. The owner bought in and told us that at the ownership meeting, the owner's meetings about McCarthy and how they, felt about his first training camp and his progress and all those things. And I think within the organization, they believed in 2024 that the most likely scenario was that Sam Darnold wouldn't play that well and that they would turn the ball over to McCarthy much the way that Jacoby Brissette did to Drake May, where, yeah, he started

the season because the kid wasn't ready, but then ultimately turned the ball over. And that obviously didn't happen because of the injury and Darnel. But that's how far along they felt he had gotten in that 2020. for camp. And I think what they thought was all the stuff they did behind the scenes, teaching him the offense, having weekly meetings, putting on the VR. And I'll be honest, I believe this as well that, okay, he, and I kept saying, like, he's not really a rookie. People saying that, but he's not really a rookies at all this experience, this life experience. I think they thought he would be ready to go. And they saw him a little bit before having to make

the decision, which was, I think, one off season workout. And they decided, hey, we're going for it. You know, we're going to make this move. And, you know, that was clearly extremely, extremely risky for them to do. And the incomplete information was they just didn't know how far long he's going to be, how he's going to come back from this injury. And also, I would say that they may have felt like they had incomplete information even on Sam Darnel. Like they'd had Darnold there for a year. But the incomplete information was a sample size. One season, like there are, and this is not to apologize for them for what happened. But there are plenty of quarterbacks.

Case Keenham is one of them. Kerry Collins won 13 games once with the Titans. I don't know. Kyle Orton won 13 games once with the Bears. Those were kind of crazy good defenses. But still, like the Case Keenom is a good example of like there are pop-up seasons throughout NFL history. And they didn't have a big enough sample size of Darnold playing well to say for sure

that this was going to be the guy. that he could lead them to 14 wins and compete for a Super Bowl again. So they decided to take the quote big swing at J.J. McCarthy, spend around him. And, you know, the other part of it, too, is that when you think about the things that happened early in this season, if you were to rewrite it, even as poorly as J.J. McCarthy played, they could have made the playoffs if three things are different. If maybe if Justin Jefferson has a training camp, maybe if J.J. McCarthy does not get an ankle injury in the game against the Atlanta Falcons.

It seems that maybe Kevin O'Connell thinks that maybe if he had not welcomed a child to the world, that maybe they would have won the Falcons game. I'm not really sure about that. But that's, you know, he's brought it up enough times. And, you know, maybe just another injury or another one more game goes a different direction and it feels a lot different or just, you know, Addison being there to start the season or Darrisaw being consistently healthy. like things like that, how can you have that information when you make the decision?

Like you're making it assuming everything goes your way. And I think what they probably failed to put in enough into the calculus was the possibility that things could go very, very wrong, the chaos factor that Sam Darnall worked his way through the chaos. The defense slipped in the second half of the season, but he was good enough. And they lost Christian Derasaw, but he was good enough during those games with, Cam Robinson still really struggling with a change at right guard because that Ingram was struggling to pass protect and so forth. And Aaron Jones getting heard and they bring back Cam Acres and so

forth. I mean, like those are the things that happen in NFL season, but they may have not totally factored in that, hey, you could be the bad luck team this season. And then you're just going to be kind of left up a river with a young quarterback that's going to have to work through those things. But you still have to wonder, like, even if he didn't, if he didn't get hurt, could he have strung together games and started to develop earlier or at very least? And KOC has taken a lot of criticism for not adapting the offense around McCarthy. My thing is, when did he have the sample size to do it? Because it's not like he played the first seven games. And then he said, okay, well, here's what he gets and here's what he doesn't. He played two games. And then it was a five game break.

He comes back and wins with a run first kind of approach. And then, he loses the next several games. Some of them they get behind. Some of them, yeah, there were times that they could have run the ball. More there were definitely times when Carson Wentz was playing that they could have run the ball more often. But my point just being that when you're losing a guy,

you play a couple games, then lose them again. It's really hard to lock down exactly what someone is comfortable with when they're actually out there, not in practice. Because as we found out, and I vow to never put too much into, I will report on joint practices in the future, but I will never wait them the way that I probably did this year.

My bad, I was texting with my friend, Chad Graff today, just like, all right, let's never, let's never act like joint practices tell us what this has going to happen in season, because here's the Patriots with a chance to beat Jared Stidham and go to the Super Bowl. So yeah, I mean, I guess we all overreact sometimes to what's right in front of us. But anyway, that's what he meant by incomplete information. It's not like they had a first season behind the scenes. It's not like they had even a full slate of preseason games to make the decision. They just had to go with their gut. And it turned out that their gut was wrong. And that was the risk that they took.

And these are the results. Let's see from Miles, my friend Miles here says not entirely Vikings related, but this cycle we've seen head coaches getting fired while GMs are retained. Why do you think this is? The Vikings almost kept Spielman after they fired. Zim seems general managers have a tighter relationship with ownership and is infrastructure in the front office harder to overhaul. That might be, but I'm not entirely sure. I mean, it feels like, it feels like if the ownership, and in, you know, the New York Giants are another example of this,

if the ownership likes the overall direction of the roster, but does not like the results, then the coach is the guy you fire. And I personally, just do not agree with that in Buffalo at all. I think the coaching was good enough to get you on the doorstep time and time again. You need one more play in these playoff games. I do not think they had a good enough roster around Josh Allen to make any argument. I mean, if you, if you swap quarterbacks and you put Bo Nicks on the bills, they go probably eight and nine, I think. I mean, Josh Allen is constantly asked to be Superman. And I know that there's debates over those narratives and everything else. But I mean, I think it's fact of the matter. You go player for player,

position by position, he is not a well-supported quarterback in 2025. He has been before, and they missed out to Mahomes in his peak. And timing is everything when it comes to those playoff win narratives, right? But, you know, I thought in that scenario, that it was clearly the issue was to do with the general manager and the roster. Now, in New York, it might be a little bit different because if you look across the roster, you've got a quarterback. You have Malik neighbors coming back. You've got some interesting players in the backfield, including Cam Scadabo.

You've got some offensive linemen you've drafted high, a great defensive line, a bullpen of players. And it seemed like to me, the culture was the issue in New York, guys not showing up to meetings, guys vastly underperforming with a bunch of players that I would argue are pretty good. And a young quarterback, it's hard to win. It's hard to have the baby to save the marriage, hard to draft. see this all the time, right? That was Chicago. Well, we're going to draft the quarterback and then, but Chicago is a good example of why you keep the GM because you like the direction of the overall

roster, but you don't like the results or how the players have gotten along with the head coach. I think that that mainly is the reason why things have been that way in this cycle. And I, I don't know if historically it's always that way, but the NFL does feel like it's gone full NHL mode here with just how many coaches are being fighting. But that would be my guess is if you could sell the ownership on, hey, we've drafted high, we've got good players, we've got a young quarterback, but the culture is problematic inside the building. We need a new guy to come shake it up.

Or in some instances, we need a quarterback whisper or we need a hard nose defensive guy because our defense is soft. It's, yeah, a lot of different scenarios there. But I think that's the main reason. All right. Let's get to Adam here. says if both Flores and Durante Jones end up elsewhere, is there another name within the organization getting buzz,

who may be the DC for promotion, or would one of the newly fired head coaches be appealing? So within the organization, I don't see another name that's clearly the guy, like Durante Jones would be with his experience over multiple regimes. I mean, I thought it was kind of clear that, you know, he made a lot of sense. And you can see by the interviews he's gotten,

I haven't noticed any other Vikings personnel, you know, getting interviews. I don't know that they have quite resumes, not that they're not good at their jobs, as you've seen these position coaches matter, but like, have they been doing it enough? Have they been in kind of a decision-making position? I'm not really sure about that. But I think that this job with the defensive talent that they have would be attractive to some former defensive coordinators who have been fired as ex-head coaches like McDermott and Morris.

there's the obvious connection with Kevin O'Connell and Rahim Morris. They won the Super Bowl together with the Los Angeles Rams. And I think that Morris would be a guy who could kind of have enough suitors as a respected defensive mind to wait on the Minnesota Vikings. And, you know, McDermott, he's going to be, I'm sure, interviewed by some remaining teams now that everything is shaking up with McDermott's surprise firing, that there could be some like, oh, hey, we got to now interview him. and that could take some time as well. But I do think that those two guys, you would jump at either one of them

to become your defensive coordinator. Morris makes a little more sense with his scheme. It was a hyper-aggressive scheme, much like the Vikings, maybe not to a total lunatic level as Brian Flores, but it was a very aggressive scheme. So I think that that is possible, more possible than maybe Sean McDermott.

I also expect Sean McDermott to get another head coaching job. I mean, when you have that much success, you usually don't sit on the sidelines for that long. And there's some organizations that desperately need someone who could turn them around. I'm thinking about you, Arizona, for example, that it feels like they don't even come up for who their organization is looking at because they are at the bottom of the barrel in the National Football League. So this is going to take a little bit of time, I think, to work itself out. But yes, I do generally overall agree that it would be more guys from the outside. than it would be from internally.

Let's see. Let me take a look and get you guys a Fandul question of the day real quick before I move on to another question or two. Let's get a look at these early over under numbers. And we're going to focus a lot on these games and where the lines go throughout the week, which will tell us kind of who's putting the money down on each position or each team. So right now, the over under for Patriots and Broncos is 41.5.

my understanding is the weather report is pretty favorable for this week, 41.5 on Fandul, that is. And I could see that, you know, it's not a high scoring game because Denver's defense, they're going to play very conservatively on offense. And it was pointed out that Sean Payton has had some success with backup quarterbacks, including Teddy Bridgewater going five and oh at one point. So his belief in Jared Stidim, I mean, this is not a super high flying offense to begin with. So that is very possible that this could be kind of a grinded out type of game.

And Seahawks and Rams, not surprisingly over under on Fandul, 47 and a half. So expecting some more scoring there in the Fandul question of the day, which would be, which one do you like better? Do you like a grinded out game for New England and Denver at 41.5? Or do you think that it's more likely there is a shootout between the Seahawks and the Los Angeles Rams? Okay, one more question for this episode. I'll have a lot more coming in the future. This one comes from Patrick.

If we, quote, can't afford to lose Flores, if not for the lawsuit, he'd be a top head coaching candidate and with the number of vacancies. Could there be a trade market for Kevin O'Connell? If you look at EPA slash DVOA, KOC's offense isn't notably better than Kubiak-Sefansky from 2019 to 2021. So the EPA and DVOA things, I think are absolutely fair to look at them with the offenses. We do have to keep in mind that, well, this year was horrific quarterback play. There's no other way to put it. Just absolutely horrible quarterback play.

And even when you look at Kyle Shanahan's history or Sean McVeigh, like if they haven't had their starting quarterback, they're not a lot better than Kevin O'Connell was. or, you know, when Trey Lance was playing or Anthony Richardson was Shane Steichen, who turned out to be a very good head coach, but not as much when he had to play Philip Rivers or Anthony Richardson. So that's always a factor. Last year, see, sometimes it depends on what you're looking at, right? Their running back did a good job last year overall, Aaron Jones, but they didn't have a vicious

running attack by any means. In fact, it was one of the worst in the NFL, but they didn't have a young star explosive running back. He also was banged up. The offensive line wasn't built very well for running the ball and then their best runner. They were averaging five yards of carry when Christian Darrasaw got hurt. So they leaned heavily into the pass and they were a top 10 passing attack. I think they finished seventh in passing EPA. And if you're asking me, which one is more telling about the head coach who clearly loves to pass and is, you know, coordinating the passing game and calling passing plays and leaning on his quarterback Sam Darnold last year, which would be more

projectable toward the future that or the run game, I would say, well, probably, you know, the passing game, which one matters more ultimately trying to win. It's probably the passing game. So some of that is just that, you know, the first year, they have Kirk cousins in the top 10 in passing EPA. I think it might have been ninth or something. So it's in the top 10. So they've twice been top 10 in passing EPA without a quarterback that is considered elite both times, and they were still 16th in 2003, and they went with Alexander Madison as they're running back. So I don't look at that and say, well, that's really fair apples to apples with Patrick

Mahomes and Andy Reed or Josh Allen or, you know, some of these other teams, Joe Burrow, that have had elite quarterbacks that get into the top of total EPA. But I mean, I think it's, I think it's fair to look at those stats and say, yeah, like, where's the elite offense in the bigger pitch? picture, it's just been in the middle, even in their best years. But we have to remember the passing games and how the quarterback is played are the most important thing. And just last year, we're saying, well, Kevin O'Connell, if he could take, you know, Sam Darnold, where he took him, that he could take any quarterback there. So we change a lot based on kind of where we currently

stand or what we last saw. I also don't think that that's the total story of a head coach. I think the total story of a head coach is looking at how the franchise runs as, a whole because that guy is responsible for everything. And I think the franchise overall, since he arrived, has completely overhauled the environment. Players want to be here, you know, stuff like that. So all of that gets baked into it. But, you know, could there be a trade market? This is where I always warn a little bit of, like, yes, I suppose. I mean, maybe that's a possibility. And boy, that would be freaking crazy if that ended up happening. But how many coaches who were hired alongside KOC are still in the league.

Like a lot of times the grass is not always greener than it is to have a better, more methodical approach. And this is what I think is going to be hard for me about covering the team this off season and then going into next year is that fans like yourself, Patrick, are very angry. Like there's a lot of anger here and frustration. And I think more than anything, I would call it maybe rather than anger, I would call it malaise. There's a malaise that is sort of set in after about midway through the season. It was like, okay, where is this going? And then when you try to look around and say, well, how are you

going to fix this, Minnesota Vikings? And you look at what Chicago's doing. And you look at what Seattle's done with Darnold and their competitive rebuild, which worked better than yours. And you go, well, what's the move that gets you into this conversation within the next year, within the next couple years. And it's hard to find it. I mean, oftentimes for me, the panacea has been the rookie quarterback contract. And if that guy clicks, then man, you're good to go, which would be 100% true if J.J. McCarthy had worked out. And he may still. And they may still get that panacea. But that, that was always, and then you see why with some of these teams with Bo Nicks here. And even C.J. Stroud, who's not good. And yet his team is good enough and strong enough to be here.

and Caleb Williams, where that team is massively improved around him. It's like, yeah, it works, but it doesn't work 100% of the time. Drake May with a vastly improved New England Patriots team that outspent everybody for Milton Williams in the offseason. Where did they get that money? And by the way, they've got a lot more in the off season. But the point just being that with this situation, I think that there's going to be a lot of when it comes to answering fan questions and so forth, people just saying, isn't there something that could completely shake this thing up? Because it feels like you've gotten to that certain point, knocked on the door enough times.

And then the other seasons have just been downright slogs, which I would say for 2003 and for this year. And that's not what anyone is hoping for when you hire a new coach back in 2022, who's supposed to take you to another level. But they've only kind of gotten to the same level, actually not even as far as my Zimmer. So, you know, I think that, well, your idea is certainly creative that the, you know, the next coach might not always be the perfect answer. Is coaching really the answer? Or is it the quarterback situation? Because I think this year, they had enough to be, maybe, I don't know if they

could have gotten to, if they had, I don't know. I mean, if they had gotten, look at where the defense was at the end of the year. If they had gotten a 16th best quarterback play in the league, they would have a chance to play this weekend. And instead, here we are sitting here talking about trading KOC. So is it possible? Anything is possible. It would be absolutely wild if it happened. I know the Wilves did consider it once upon a time with Mike Zimmer.

That did happen that they considered trading Mike Zimmer to the Dallas Cowboys in 2019. So I'm not going to completely dismiss your idea. Nothing is impossible with the Minnesota Vikings. We should always make sure that we say that. but I don't think it's going to happen. I think that this year, they need to be challenged to get back to that spot in the postseason where you're trying to truly compete for a championship.

Divisional rounded on are the teams that really have a legitimate chance. Or then you are, I think, having more serious conversations about this. But I would like to give them the off season to show everyone. And I know that's saying like, hey, you guys should be more patient. Oh, I'm not. I know the history. I know how long you've been patient. I know how many times it's been, hey, he's a good coach, but maybe not perfect or, hey, he's a good quarterback, but maybe not perfect or whatever. And you haven't had your Drake May moment. And here's the Patriots. Wow, they had like a like a six year run of not being this again. And now here they go. So trust me,

I'm sympathetic to that. I just think that when you sign up for it, the overall plan kind of takes you to hear. And how they deal with that will give us the answer to what this regime is historically. I don't think it can end right here with one season of the quarterback that you drafted. All right. Thanks, everybody for great questions. I've got a lot more to work with. So thank you for sending them all. I'm going to have more episodes of these coming out very, very soon.

And through the off season, always open for business when it comes to answering your messages. Twitter's probably the best place to hit me up. But you can also send me an email Matthew Collar at Gene. if you want to do that. And I'll throw them in the bunch and we'll make sure we get those answered. So, but you know, things are changing every single day. So where this all goes, who knows? But hopefully you're enjoying at least the college season ending, playoff football should be a heck of an interesting week leading up to this weekend.

So thanks again, everybody. And we'll talk you all soon. Football.